The Apocalypse of St. John

Apocalypse of John: Lecture XI

XI

WE have followed the
evolution of our earth so far that we have seen how, after various
important events which are described by the opening of the seven
seals and the sounding of the seven trumpets, in the future the
earth with all its beings will pass into a kind of spiritual
condition, with the exception of those who refuse to receive
the Christ-principle; this refusal we have to understand as a
malevolent and unintelligent spiritual opposition
energetically exercised. Of course, when the earth has taken
on its astral, its spiritual form, these beings too will be
unable to exist in a dense material form — shall we say
— in earthly substance; M the epoch following after the
sounding of the trumpets, the epoch characterized by the
outpouring of the vials of wrath, they will also pass over
into astral forms. But the lower nature they will have
acquired through not having accepted the Christ-principle
will be expressed in the astral by their having essentially
the animal form we have characterized, with the seven heads
and ten horns. Now from all that has been said you will be
able to gather what the relation is between what we call
“heads” and what we call “horns”; but
in connection with this the question may arise in your mind:
Why is it that just certain organs which appear is the
physical body are called “horns”? Why does one
designate as horns the physical organs and their vestiges in
the astral when the earth shall have become astral? It can
easily be understood that those who have not taken up the
principle of Christ roust fall back again into the condition
in which man was before he could partake of the
Christ-principle. Man was formerly a non-individual being
with a group-soul; and we have seen that during the first
four ages of the Atlantean epoch he was furnished with the
group-souls which are correctly symbolized by the lion, bull,
eagle and human heads, but the last must be conceived of as
an animal human head. We mast imagine that when man reappears
in the spiritualized earth and has failed to take in the
Christ-principle during our epoch, he will then again appear
in the old form, because he has contributed nothing
towards the highest development of his previous group-soul
nature; and not only in this form but with three heads more,
which were added during the ages. Before the great flood of
Atlantis three further ages followed after the first four.

In these
three ages those who later received the Christ-principle had
in a certain way the possibility of taking up three further
group-soul heads; but they have transformed them, they have
raised the animal nature in man to a higher stage. They will
appear in a spiritualized form when the earth is
spiritualized. The others, who have rejected the
Christ-principle, will appear with seven heads, because there
were before the flood seven ages during which the animal
nature was developed. And because in the last three Atlantean
ages there was hi-sexuality in contra-distinction to the
first four, each head, so to speak, appears with two
possibilities towards the animal nature, with male and female
possibilities, so that in these three later ages each head
appears with two horns; that is man with ten horns
altogether. Some one might now say, “I quite understand that
those who do not work upon themselves so as to strip off the
form which they have and lift it up to the human, will
reappear in the animal form; but I do not understand why
horns are spoken of! It is quite comprehensible when heads
are spoken of, but why horns?” I will now explain why one
not only speaks of horns, but must speak of them. The
expression is not merely to be understood symbolically, it is
reality. Those who fail to take up the Christ-principle into
themselves will actually appear in astral form also, but
because they have so shaped their instincts that they have
held fast, so to speak, to the animal group-soul, the
corresponding instincts appear in the astral body which men
will then have, in the form of horny protuberances. It is an
actual form.

I will
explain by means of a single organ how it comes about that
the man who does not receive the Christ-principle will
actually appear with horns when the earth has become
spiritualized. Take the organ of the human larynx and the
windpipe. You are continually breathing air in and out
through this wind-pipe. This is an activity which man
exercises. In a person who spiritualizes himself, this
activity is in the service of the spiritual; but in one who
does not incline towards the Christ-principle it takes on the
character of the old forces belonging to the seven heads.
Suppose we illustrate it in this way:

The
air continually passes in through the larynx from
outside. But you know that the astral body of man surrounds
him. The stream of air which passes in will always be in
connection with the astral. Now when the earth is
spiritualized it can be seen whether the breathing of a man
was the servant of the Christ-principle or the servant of the
lower forces already in the world before the
Christ-principle. If it was the servant of the
Christ-principle it loses the form adapted to the present
body. Man himself has the power to transform everything which
is astral into a higher spiritualized form. If he does not
take up the Christ-principle he is unable to draw out of
this fleshly form that which is suited to it, and the
consequence is that after the fleshly form has fallen away
and disappeared, after the physical larynx has gone, this
form of the astral body remains, which always comes into the
larynx with the breath. This form remains in the shape of a
horn. Wherever the external astral forces go in and out of
man they remain adapted to the preceding animal form when man
passes over into the astral form, that is, he then appears
with true astral horns; these are actual astral shapes. They
correspond exactly to the penetration of the astral
substantiality during the earth life. These pictures do not
present random symbols, they present the true form of what
will one day appear. This must be clearly understood.

Let us now
determine our present position in evolution in accordance
with what we have already considered, in accordance with that
somewhat uncongenial diagram of many numbers. We now clearly
understand that the forty-nine great transformations of
Saturn have passed away, the seven conditions of life
belonging to Saturn (which in theosophical books are also
called rounds), each with its seven conditions of form
(globes); and that, further, the forty-nine corresponding
Sun-conditions and the forty-nine Moon-conditions have also
passed away. Man has so far passed through these 147
conditions in his earlier evolution. Added to these now conic
the conditions which man has already passed through during
our Earth period. The first three conditions of life, which
are also called the first three rounds, are behind us, and we
are now living in the fourth condition of life, in the fourth
round. Now as each of these rounds includes its seven
conditions of form, we have completed
3 x 7
conditions during
the first three earth-rounds; therefore to the 147 we must
add another twenty-one. We have not yet completed the fourth
condition of life, but part of it is behind us; we have
finished the first three conditions of form, the almost
formless spiritual conditions, the arupa, the rupa and the
astral conditions, and are now in the physical. So to the 147
pies twenty-one we must add three more. Thus we have
completed 171 conditions of form out of the 343 of the seven
planets. You must particularly bear in mind that we are now
in the 172nd condition of form, which is the physical earth.
During this 172nd condition all that we have described has
taken place. When this condition began, the earth was united
with sun and moon. During this condition the sun and moon
withdrew, and after these events man appeared as he now is
upon the physical earth. Then began the Atlantean epoch, of
which we have spoken. We have also said that we must again
divide this condition of form, which is the 172nd, into seven
epochs. The first lies in the far distant past. When it began
the sun was still united with the earth. Somewhat
figuratively we have grown accustomed to call this epoch the
Polarian human race. It is difficult to form any idea of this
epoch. Then during the withdrawal of the sums comes the race
of the Hyperboreans; then, during the exit of the moon, a
third, the so-called Lemurian human race. The fourth epoch
within the 172nd condition of form is the Atlantean race. The
fifth is the one in which we are living. Following the fourth
was the great Atlantean flood. After our own will follow the
epoch expressed in the Apocalypse of John by the seven seals;
and then conies the one typified by the seven trumpets.

Now we know
that each of these seven epochs is again divided into seven
ages. Our own epoch, the- fifth within the 17znd condition of
form, is divided into the ancient Indian age of civilization,
the ancient Persian, the
Assyrian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Egyptian-Jewish, the
Graeco-Latin, our own, a sixth and then a seventh age of
civilization. Then follows the great War of All against All.
The succeeding epoch is again divided into seven parts,
expressed by the seven seals; and the epoch expressed by the
seven trumpets is again divided into seven parts. If you now
consider that 171 conditions of form will be added to those
that have already passed away, you will have 342. One more
added to this gives 343 in all; but we are living in this
one, it stands in the middle. Some one might now say: “It is
really a very wonderful thing that we have the good fortune to
be living exactly in the middle of evolution.” This must
indeed seen a curious fact to those who do not reflect
further upon it, that we are living in the middle of
evolution! But to one who understands the whole matter it is
by no means strange. It is no more wonderful than if some
one, standing in an open field in level country where he sees
equally far behind and in front, finds himself in the middle
of the field of vision. If he goes some distance further, he
again sees equally far behind and in front. There would be
entirely different conditions in evolution if we were to take
our stand at another point. We are always in the middle. Man
can always see equally far behind lain and before him, even
with the highest spiritual vision. Something else might
perhaps strike one. Some one might say: “How is it that you
do not say that we are exactly in the middle in other
respects? For now it is no longer the case. We are in the
172nd condition of form. The exact middle would be in the
fourth epoch of this, but we are now in the fifth, that is,
somewhat beyond the middle. This does not exactly agree with
the statement that we are actually in the middle.” Underlying
this there is a remarkable fact, you may understand it by a
comparison. If you comprehend this clearly, you will see that
it is an important fact. It is really the case that m regard
to the great main conditions we are in the middle; but in
regard to the conditions which concern us immediately, we
stand somewhat beyond the middle. Why is this? Imagine you
are travelling through a very level country in a special
railway carriage from which you can have a clear view in
every direction. Suppose you are able to do this for some
length of time. You have a perfectly clear view, and if at
any one point in your journey you could rapidly make a sketch
of the whole of the surroundings, this picture would be
absolutely circular. There is only one case in which this
would not be so. Imagine you are sitting in the rapidly
moving train and you note the picture you see. At this moment
you fall asleep and travel for a time while sleeping. During
this time you are unaware of the way in which the picture is
changing. You awake. Imagine that at this moment the picture
you saw on going to sleep again quickly arises. It does not
now agree. The reason is that you have been asleep for a
certain length of time. Your picture does not now coincide
with the view which is equal in every direction, for there
is in addition the part you have slept through.

Let us now
ask: “Is it perhaps the case that man has slept from the
middle of his evolution up to our age?” It might be explicable
to us that the picture would have to agree up to that point.
Now, as we have come beyond the middle, it would be possible,
if we have slept, that the picture may have altered a little.
Has man been asleep? In the occult sense humanity has been
asleep since the middle of the Atlantean epoch, because that
was the time when the whole human race, as such, lost the
ancient dim spiritual vision. From the spiritual point of
view mass sank as if into a state of sleep. He began to turn
his attention to the sense world, and thus, from the point of
view of the spiritual world, to pass into a state of sleep;
and only when he has regained the higher vision will he have
a free view, so to speak, in every direction. There will.
then no longer be this disarrangement of evolution, there
will be the same distance behind and in front. Since the
middle of the Atlantean epoch man has, in fact, been asleep,
by reason of his being unable normally to participate in the
sight of the spiritual worlds if we leave Initiates out of
account — somnambulists also, if you will — we have
to say that man does not see; for seeing means really to look
into the world. As regards the spiritual world humanity is
asleep, and it will continue to sleep for a time. For the
period since the Atlantean epoch the statement of John's
Gospel holds good: “The light shone into the darkness and the
darkness comprehended it not.”

Thus
in this division there is hidden an important truth, the
truth that humanity is living in a dark age, the age of
darkness, and the Christ-principle has come hi this age in
order that humanity might be led forth into the age of light.
For this reason it was correct to put the present position of
evolution not in the middle, but beyond the middle, because
in Atlantis begins the dark age which will continue into lour
sixth age, when the elect appear in white garments, when they
appear as the first of those who are again able, under
ordinary normal conditions, to have the spiritual world
around them and the age of darkness will have passed away.
Then appears die age of which it must be said, “The light
shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends the light.“
For this reason the dark age will also be called the time
when man directs his gaze only to the physically material
world in the normal condition and does not sec the
spiritual world behind it. We shall now connect this with
what has already been said regarding evolution. When
evolution has progressed beyond the seventh epoch, beyond the
epoch indicated by the sounding of the trumpets, the earth
then spiritualizes itself and passes over first into the
astral, then into the lower devachanic and finally into the
higher devachanic condition. Afterwards it returns to
the same conditions by condensing more and more from the
finest spiritual; and the condition comes which usually is
described as the fifth round, which again will have seven
conditions of form, and in the middle will again pass through
a development of what must be characterized as seven
successive epochs, or, shall we say, race conditions.

Now
let us, even if it be somewhat difficult, look a little
more deeply into the following conditions of our earth
evolution. Let us turn our gaze to a quite definite point in
our future evolution just as we have been considering the
present stage. Let us start with our present, namely the
172nd condition. Prior to this 172nd condition the Earth had
already completed three sub-conditions; the 172nd condition
is the Earth itself. Three have already been completed and it
is now in the fourth of these conditions. First, however, we
are considering only the conditions of form. We reckon that
we are in the fourth condition of life or fourth round.
Granted this is so and we say: In this fourth condition of
life or round we have already passed through three conditions
of form and are now in the fourth. Now we ask further how
many of the sub-conditions have we passed through? The first,
second, third and fourth. The last was the Atlantean epoch.
This is now completed. We have passed through four conditions
and are now in the fifth, the post-Atlantean. Of this fifth
epoch we have again passed through four sub-conditions,
namely, the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egyptian
and the Graeco-Latin, and are now in the fifth age. So that
we can say: before our immediate present stage of evolution
we have completed 344 conditions. These 344 conditions which
we have completed are described is Apocalyptic language as
the number of evolution. When, therefore, it is asked: What
is the number of evolution, our evolution, the answer is 344.
This is not read according to the system of ten, but
according to the system of seven. Three conditions (out of
the seven) have been gone through, and four conditions (out
of the next smaller seven) have been gone through, four
conditions (out of again the next smaller seven). That is
what is really meant by the 3-4-4. One must not simply read
it like other numbers, but it contains, written side by side,
the number of stages passed through.

When
the earth is spiritualized and has developed to its next
conditions, then more and more stages will have been gone
through. And the time will come, when six conditions of the
first kind, six of the second and six of the third will have
been passed through. Just as we now have the 344 as the
number of evolution, in the future when six conditions of
life, six root-races and six sub-races have been gone
through, the number 666 (six six six) will apply, read in the
manner above described, which is the method used by the
writer of the Apocalypse. Thus a time will come when the
number 666 is the number of evolution. This will only be in a
very distant future, but this future is already being
prepared at the present time. Three great main conditions
have been completed and we are now living in the fourth. But
when we have reached the great War of All against All, and
the epoch indicated by the seven seals has passed away, we
shall have gone through six of the middle kind. When the
first trumpet sounds we shall have passed through six such
main races, and when the first six trumpets are over, we
shall have experienced 66. By then humanity will have had
opportunity to prepare for the terrible time which will
follow much later, when not only 66 but 666 will be reached.
All that lies in the future is already being prepared now.
The time following the War of All against All, the time after
the seventh trumpet is sounded, will see men who, through
excluding themselves from the Christ-principle, will have
attained a high degree of evil, of the tendency to sink into
the abyss. By then these men will have sunk so low that when
the point of time 666 comes they will be able to descend very
low into evil, into the abyss of evil. Men will have taken
into themselves, already in the period after the great War of
All against All, when the seventh trumpet sounds, the germs
of this descent into the abyss in the far-distant future. It
will, indeed, for a long time be possible for those who have
taken these germs into themselves to turn round and be
converted, to tarn back in their development in order even
then to receive the Christ-principle. But the first
predisposition will have been formed, and those who retain
this tendency will no longer be able — when that distant
future has come which is indicated not by 466, but by 666 —
to change this tendency into good. They will succumb to the
frightful fate of which we have still to speak.

Thus
we see that with this number six, whether it is simply
six, or six six, or six six six, there is connected something
bad for human evolution. We are now living in the fifth main
period and the fifth sub-period. After the great War we shall
pass into the sixth epoch; but before the great War there
comes, immediately after our fifth age, the sixth age,
described as the community of Philadelphia. We know that we
are now living in the age in which materialism has spread
abroad in humanity. We have seen that throughout the past
centuries man has become more and more materialistic; but
this materialism is such that a person can turn back from it
at any time. The materialist still has opportunity to turn
back. It is, however, necessary that at the present time a
spiritual conception of the world should gain ground, a
conception which leads a small group of people to this
spiritual view of the world. This group will comprise those
who will lay the first foundation of the great bond of
brotherhood in the sixth age, which will follow ours, and is,
therefore, not very far distant, whose beginning lies in a
period which can be counted in millennia and these will bring
about the very first division in humanity. Those who persist
obstinately in materialism, and also the others who will be
inclined to accept a spiritual conception, who in the small
group develop a bond of brotherhood, both these will appear
in the sixth age. This simple 6 can already be fateful to
many, but not finally binding, for a turning back will still
be possible. But mankind will continue beyond the great War
of All against All. Five epochs will have passed away; the
number 6 will appear again. Afterwards the allurements and
temptations will come again in order further to develop the
materialistic tendencies and to carry them over into the
epoch of the sounding of the trumpets, and when six great
periods and six smaller periods have passed away, after 66,
there will already be very considerable tendencies in
humanity which will not be so easy to put increasingly right
as they are at the present time. Thus we see that actually
the world of bad tendencies works within humanity and that
the good men separate from the evil more and
more clearly and definitely, in accordance with the
description of the writer of the Apocalypse. The last great
separation will be when the number six will be fulfilled not
only for the shorter periods but for the longer ones. This
will be the case when our earth has completed its six
kingdoms of life or six rounds, and within the seventh.
round, again six conditions of form. When the earth has
finished this, the tendencies of humanity to evil will have
developed to a frightful form. Nothing but evil will then
appear, with frightful devastating power, in those who have
remained evil.

How
often, therefore, during our earth period, does humanity
have the opportunity to succumb to the enticement of evil?
First of all in the age after the present one, before the
great War. Then man has a second and a third opportunity as
well. This descent into evil is gradual. In the period when
the earth has passed over into a spiritual condition, we have
to deal first of all with two possibilities. When the earth
reunites with the sun, those who have received the
Christ-principle will then be ripe to rise into the forces of
the earth which unite with the sun; those who have received
the possibility of evil will be excluded. These are, as it
were, in such a position that they thrust the sun away from
themselves, they thrust away that which would enable them to
unite with the forces of the sun. They are opponents of this
union. For this reason the Apocalypse rightly designated the
power, the Being, who leads men so to spiritualize themselves
that they can unite with the sun as the Christ, and — as
we shall hear — as the Lamb. One describes the
Christ-Being as the genius of the sun who unites himself with
the earth and becomes also the genius of the earth. He has
already begun to be this since the event of Golgotha. But
there is also an opposing principle to the Lamb, there is
also a Sun-Demon, the so-called Demon of the Sun, that which
works in the evil forces of man, thrusting back the force of
the Lamb, and it works un such a way that a certain amount of
the human race is thrust out of the evolution which leads to
the sun. These are the opposing forces of the sun, they are
in opposition to the sun; at the same time they are the
forces which have the tendency to be entirely thrown
out of our evolution when the 666 stages have passed away;
they will then be finally cast into the abyss. So that we may
say: At the time when the earth is united with the sun there
will be excluded, not only that which is symbolized by the
beast with seven heads and ten horns, but also that which is
furnished with forces which are in opposition to the sun. All
this is destined to disappear into the abyss when the 666 is
fulfilled.

Now
this 666 has always been written in a very mysterious
way; we shall see later on that there is every reason to wrap
in mystery the facts with which we are now dealing. And for
this reason it was written 666. In the mysteries from which
the writer of the Apocalypse received his initiation, they
wrote 400 200 660. This is written in such a way that the
laity cannot understand it. This 666 was hidden; it was to
remain a secret. By having 200 here and by the other figures
being transposed, an illusion is produced. Now in the kind of
writing used by the Initiates there is a certain principle
which consists in letters being expressed by corresponding
numbers. Several of the remarkable people who, in the course
of the nineteenth century wished to unravel the mystery of
the number 666, hit on the principle of expressing letters by
numbers, but they have come upon it in such a way that one
can say: they have, indeed, heard sounds but not in unison.
For they have acquired in an unclear way that which I have
now explained and which has always been taught esoteric-ally.
They have found out that when one sets letters of the Hebrew
alphabet in place of these numbers the result is “Nero,”
thus they have concluded that 666 signifies Nero. This is not the
case. 666 must first be written:
400 +
200 +
6 + 60,
and then one can arrive at the meaning. Then one must write
400 as ת (Tau),
200 as ר (Resh),
6 as ו (Vau), and
60 as ם (Samech).
These four letters express the four numbers
400 +
200 +
6 + 60.
In a wonderful way they
have been drawn into this mystery, wonderful through the
ingenuity of those who have drawn them in because at the same
time the sounds of these four letters have again a special
occult significance. What must the number 666 actually mean
if it is to express what we have explained? It must mean the
principle which leads man to complete hardening un the
external physical life,
so that he simply thrusts from him that which enables him to
strip off the lower principles and to rise to the higher.
That which man has obtained as physical body, etheric body,
astral body and lower “I,” before it rises to the
higher — these four principles are at the same time
expressed by these four letters, by Samech, the physical
body, Vau, the etheric body, Resh, the astral body and Tau,
the lower “I.” Thus we see that that which is hardened in
these four principles before they begin their divine
evolution is expressed by the four letters. The writer of the
Apocalypse can truly say, “Here is Truth!” For wisdom is
contained in it. “Let him who hath understanding consider the
number 666.”

And
now we will read it. We read it in this way, from right
to left.

We
have then to supply the vowels and it reads: Sorath,
Sorath is the name of the Sun-Demon, the adversary of the
Lamb. Every such spiritual being was described not only by
name but also by a certain symbolical sign. For Sorath, the
sun-demon, there was this sign:

a thick stroke
bent back upon itself and terminating in two curved points.

Now
we must understand the writer of the Apocalypse rightly.
At the very beginning he makes a remarkable statement, which
is usually wrongly translated. The beginning of the
Apocalypse runs, however “This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave unto him to spew unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and
signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”
“Signified it.” By this we must understand
that he gives the important, the real content of the mystery
hi signs. He has put that which 666 expresses in signs. What
he describes is the sign, and he describes it thus
(Rev. xiii. 11):
“And I saw another beast coming up out of the
earth; and he had two horns like a lamb.”
These are nothing
else than the two strokes at the upper part of the sign, and
in order to conceal this he simply calls the two strokes here
“horns.” It was always the case in the use of the mystery
language that one uses a word in more than one sense so as to
make it impossible for the uninitiated to understand without
special effort. That which he describes here: “It has two
horns like a lamb,” is the symbol of the sun-demon, which in
the mystery language is expressed by the word “Sorath,”
and this, if we convert the several letters into their numbers is
expressed by the four numbers, 400, 200, 6 and 60. This is a
very veiled way of expressing 666. Thus we see that the
writer of the Apocalypse is referring to the adversary of the
Lamb. When the earth passes over into the spiritual, the
forms of men appear below in such a way that they receive
their old animal form. The beast with the seven heads and ten
horns appears. But there also appears their seducer, the
adversary of Christ, who has the great power to prevent their
returning to the sun. Man himself cannot be the adversary of
Christ, he can only let slip the opportunity to take the
Christ-principle into himself, through what dwells in him as
false power; but there is such an adversary, the sun-demon.
This appears as soon as there is something that can become
his prey. Before the prey is there, before the men are there
with the seven heads and ten horns, there is nothing to lead
astray, the tempter has nothing to seek there; but when men
appear with such inclination, then comes the tempter, and he
appears as the second beast and seduces them!

Thus
at the moment when the earth passes over into the
astral condition there appears that in man which existed in
him when the earth was still clothed with a covering of
water. The human animal appears. From the water one sees the
beast with seven heads and ten horns raise itself. Through
this human animal
having left the earth unused, Sorath, the adversary of the
sun, the tempter, can now arise out of the earth, through
this he can approach man and tear him down with all his might
into the abyss. Thus from this time on we see a being drawing
close to man, which has a fear-fill power! What, then, does
this being do in order to lead man into the most horrible
things one can think of? For man to be led into what is
merely immoral, what is already known to normal man, it did
not need this monster which appears as the sun-demon. Only
when that which in a good sense distinguishes the beings who
bring salvation to the human race, only when spiritual
eminence is turned to its opposite, only when spiritual power
is placed in the service of the lower “I”-principle, can it
bring humanity to the point when the beast represented with
two horns gains power over it. The misuse of spiritual forces
is connected with that seductive power of the beast with the
two horns. And we call this abuse of the spiritual power
black magic, in contradistinction to its right use, which is
white magic. Thus through the separation of the human race
there is prepared at the same time the power to attain
greater and greater spiritual conditions on the one hand, and
thereby to obtain the use of the spiritual forces, and arrive
at white magic; while on the other hand abuse of spiritual
forces is a preparation for the most fearful kind of power of
the two horned beast — black magic. Humanity will finally
he divided into beings who practise white magic and those who
practise black magic. Thus in the mystery of 666 or Sorath is
hidden the secret of black magic; and the tempter to black
magic, that most fearful crime in the earth evolution, with
which no other crimes can be compared, this seducer is
represented by the writer of the Apocalypse as the two-horned
beast. Thus there appears on our horizon, so to speak, the
division of humanity in the far distant future; the chosen of
Christ, who finally will be the white magicians, and the
adversaries, the terrible wizards, the black magicians who
cannot escape from matter and whom the writer of the
Apocalypse describes as those who make prostitution with
matter. Hence this whole practice of black magic, the union
which takes place between man and the hardening in matter is
presented to him in the spiritual vision of
the great Babylon, the community made up of all those who
carry on black magic; in the frightful marriage, or rather,
unrestrained marriage, between man and the forces of
prostituted matter. And thus in the far future we see two
powers confronting each other; on the one hand those who
swell the population of the great Babylon, and on the other
hand chose who rise above matter, who as human beings unite
with the principle represented as the Lamb. We see how on the
one hand the blackest ones segregate themselves in Babylon,
led by all the forces opposing the sun, by Sorath the
two-horned beast, and we see those who have developed front
the elect, who unite with Christ, or the Lamb, who appears to
them; the marriage of the Lamb on the one hand, and that of
Babylon, the descending Babylon, on the other! We see
Babylon descend into the abyss, and the elect, who have
celebrated the marriage with the Lamb, rise to the exercise
of the forces of white magic. And as they not only recognize
the spiritual forces but also understand how to operate then
magically, they are able to prepare what they possess in the
earth for the next planetary incarnation, Jupiter. They
sketch out the great outlines, so to speak, which Jupiter is
to have. We see the preparatory forms, which are to survive
as the forms of the next earth incarnation, as Jupiter, come
forth by the power of the white magicians: we see the New
Jerusalem produced by white magic. But that which is
described as Sorath — 666 — must first be expelled. That
which has succumbed to the principle of the two-horned beast,
and hence has hardened itself into the beast with the seven
heads and ten horns, is driven forth. The power by which the
sun-genius overcomes those who are expelled, which drives
them down into the abyss, is called the countenance of the
sun-genius and the countenance of the sun-genius is Michael,
who, as the representative, so to speak, of the sun-genius,
overcomes the beast with the two horns, the seducer, which is
also called the great dragon. This is represented to the seer
in the picture of Michael who has the key, who stands by the
side of God and holds the opposing forces chained.

Thus
is characterized in the Christian-Rosicrucian
esotericism the casting out of those who belong to 666, and
the overcoming of the dragon, the seducer. Thus before our
gaze to-day there appears that which the writer of the
Apocalypse has enveloped in mystery, which one must first
discover by removing the veil, and of which he says, “Here
is Wisdom.” “Let him who hath understanding count the number
of the beast” (that is, the two-horned beast); “for this
number is 666.”

Those
who have connected this with Nero have made a poor
response to this challenge of the writer of the Apocalypse.
For you see from what cosmic depths the wisdom must be drawn
which leads to the explanation of the number 666. Although
to-day you may have to make efforts to understand this
passage, you must not forget that it is necessary to make
efforts to understand the deepest mysteries. And the
Apocalyptist has veiled these deepest mysteries of cosmic
evolution. He has veiled then because it is good for man that
the most important mysteries should be expressed in symbols.
For apart from all the rest, through the powers exercised to
decipher the signs is gained much of that which at the same
time lifts us up to the good powers themselves. Let us not be
cast down because we have to wind our way through a scheme of
numbers. If you had had to grasp what was given secretly in
the ancient schools in such numbers, before anything else was
given, you would have had to go through very much more. There
the pupils were obliged in be silent for a long time and
quietly listen when nothing but numbers, 777, 666, etc., were
explained again and again, at first in their formal meaning.
And only when they had grasped this meaning were they allowed
to know its actual significance.